io6 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 



The flowerheads are large and as conspicuous as in the Hoary 

 Ragwort, and the same arrangement of the flower holds good. The 

 ray florets are female or absent, the disk florets being complete. The 

 achenes are furnished with abundant silky pappus and adapted for wind 

 dispersal. 



Marsh Ragwort is a peat-loving plant, and requires a more or less 

 damp and peaty soil, such as that which is obtained in a marsh or bog. 



Marsh Ragwort is infested by a cluster-cup fungus, Puccinia 

 senecionis, A moth, the Wormwood Pug (Eupithecia absynthiata), 

 feeds upon it. 



The second Latin name refers to its aquatic habitat. 



Ragwort is known in Ireland as " Fairies' Horse", and was said to 



> 



have been sought for by witches when taking their midnight journeys. 

 Burns in his "Address to the Deil " makes his witches "skim the 

 muirs and dizzy crags on ragweed hags " with " wicked speed ". A 

 similar legendary belief prevails in Cornwall in connection with the 

 Castle Peak, a high rock south of the Logan Stone. " Here ", 

 Mr. Hunt writes, "many a man, and woman too, now quietly sleeping 

 in the churchyard of St. Levan would, had they power, attest to have 

 seen the witches flying into the Castle Peak on moonlight nights, 

 mounted on the stems of the Ragwort." " Fairies' Horse " was applied 

 because fairies were supposed in Ireland to ride to their scenes of 

 merry-making on Ragwort. It was a Manx preservative against all 

 infectious diseases. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



167. Senecio aquaticus, Hill. Stem tall, radical leaves petiolate, 

 subentire, glabrous, flowerheads large, yellow, in loose corymbs, rays 

 spreading, fruit glabrous. 



Marsh Thistle (Cnicus palustris, Willd.) 



As in the case of other typical marsh plants this plant has been 

 found in Interglacial and Neolithic deposits. It is found to-day in 

 Arctic Europe and Siberia. The Marsh Thistle is known in all parts 

 of Great Britain, even ascending to 2400 ft. in the Highlands. 



The name Marsh Thistle indicates to some extent the range of this 

 species, which is so familiar a member of all marsh floras, with its tall 

 tufted heads of purple bloom. But it is really common to all wet 

 ground, growing in damp hollows in meadows and along the margins 

 of lakes, rivers, and pools of all descriptions. 



The Marsh Thistle is one of the tallest thistles, erect, branched at 



